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Monday, August 15, 2011

KOCHI: Mayor Tony Chammany had promised umpteen times that the issue of waste treatment will be sorted out. Immediately after each promise, he would turn up with some lame excuses for not keeping his word. The latest in the series of gimmicks by the Mayor is the one on the construction of a new waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram.

Alas! All these gimmicks were not good enough to lift Kochi from its pathos.

It has been a year since the plant became defunct. But what the Mayor and his team did was just planning. And planning alone...

Around 40,000 tonnes of waste, including heavy metals like cadmium, mercury and plastic dumped by the Kochi Corporation at the Brahamapuram Solid Waste Treatment Plant has been posing a threat to the people living in and around the area.

The waste dumped by the civic body in the plant situated on the shores of the Kadambrayar leaks into the river causing severe pollution. The situation is getting worse day-by-day. But the civic body has not taken any steps to mitigate the issue. The local body seems to be completely ambiguous about the setting up of a new plant. It seems that they are yet to decide on which plant they should start- the sewage plant or the solid waste treatment plant. That was why the delegation headed by the Mayor visited the Coimbatore waste treatment plant.

But the confusion still prevails.

When the City Express contacted Health Standing Committee chairman T K Ashraf he confirmed that they were going to start a solid waste treatment plant. “We will soon invite express of interest for constructing the new plant. We will decide the agency to fix the conditions for submitting expression of interest on Wednesday,” Ashraf said.

In an effort to know how the solid waste treatment plant can be successfully operated, the Corporation team visited a sewage treatment plant at Coimbatore! After the visit, they even submitted a report to the Chief Minister based on which the latter has given the nod to set up a new plant.

Aggravating the war between the Corporation and the people, the latter has made it clear that they would not allow a new plant at any cost. “Our beautiful village has already been ravaged owing to the existing plant. We won’t allow them to set up a new one here. The colour of the flag is not our concern,” said Abdul Basheer, a member of the Brahmapuram Action Council.